Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor is the current UFC lightweight champion and the former UFC featherweight champion, making UFC history as the first man to hold belts in two weight divisions simultaneously. McGregor never defended his UFC featherweight title, instead being stripped of it by the UFC it after winning the lightweight title to make the claim on the historic achievement. Start of UFC Career McGregor most recently made his debut against fellow prospect Marcus Brimage in Sweden. He defeated Brimage via a highlight reel first round knockout, calling out several UFC lightweights for injury replacements almost immediately afterwards. McGregor was then called out himself by Akira Corassani. Instead McGregor next signed to fight Andy Ogle. Ogle was injured about a month before the fight was set to take place; he was replaced by youthful striker Max Holloway. McGregor dominated young Holloway en route to a unanimous decision victory despite injuring his knee in the second round. After the fight McGregor took to Twitter to give his opinion on the UFC featherweight division at large: "Jose Aldo-Safe. Chad Mendes-135er. Ricardo Lamas-Nobody cares. Cub Swanson-OLD. Chang Sung Jung/TKZ-Open. Frank Edgar-135er. Dennis Siver-OLD. Dustin Poirier-PeaHead. Clay Guida and Nik Lentz-Boring. Erik Koch-?" McGregor next spent his time getting in trouble for calling out UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and contender Miesha Tate for a threesome and also calling out fan favorite and lightweight contender Diego Sanchez for a fight. McGregor was quoted as saying in December 2013 that "Diego Sanchez belongs in Bellator with the rest of the has-beens." The Hype Truly Begins McGregor was on a hefty layoff for the next few months but that didn't keep him from mouthing off about everyone from Cole Miller to UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. In March 2014 McGregor was rumored to be set to fight Miller in the main event of the UFC's return to Dublin, Ireland. Instead Miller was replaced by TUF winner Diego Brandao. McGregor knocked out Brandao in the first round before doing the same to contender Dustin Poirier. McGregor next called out Dennis Siver despite saying he wanted the winner of the UFC featherweight title rematch between Chad Mendes and champion Jose Aldo. He signed to fight Siver 'to keep busy.' Shortly before the fight in January 2015 UFC president Dana White announced that with a victory over Dennis Siver McGregor would earn the next shot at Aldo who had defeated Mendes. McGregor defeated Siver via second round technical knockout. He was next set to fight Aldo with a huge buildup to the bout. Unfortunately Aldo was injured just a few weeks before the bout and replaced by Chad Mendes who would fight McGregor for the UFC interim featherweight title. Winning the "Title" and then "Winning" the Title In an atmosphere that said this was undeniably the most high-profile UFC fight to date, McGregor knocked out a winded Mendes at the end of the second round to become the UFC interim featherweight champion. McGregor was emotional afterwards, respectful of Mendes and even humble but many fans of the sport -- whether fans of McGregor or not -- knew that wouldn't last. McGregor would next unify 'his' interim featherweight title with the real title held by Aldo, in December 2015. He defeated Aldo via a thirteen-second knockout to become the undisputed UFC featherweight champion. Dana White, the president of the UFC, stated that if McGregor wanted to move up to lightweight, he would get an immediate shot at that title as well... The Diaz Surprise In January 2016 McGregor indeed asked for and received the immediate title shot at UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos. He didn't immediately vacate his featherweight belt for the opportunity but instead stated he would defend it after theoretically defeating Dos Anjos and then predicted that he would win the UFC welterweight title held by Robbie Lawler before the end of 2016. Unfortunately Dos Anjos was injured less than two weeks before the bout and lightweight veteran Nate Diaz stepped in to take the bout. Diaz had only ten days' notice for the fight and only had time to train for three of those days with additional media responsibilities. The fight itself took place at 170 pounds in the welterweight division, the natural weight of both men. Diaz still came in on the night of the fight and showed that he was a true fighter, outstriking McGregor ultimately in a bloody war before submitting McGregor via a second round rear-naked choke submission. It was without a doubt the biggest win of Diaz's career and one of the biggest fights in UFC history. Aftermath and Rematch McGregor stated after the fight that he had taken a chance and it had backfired and that he would return to the featherweight division for the time being to defend his title at the landmark UFC 200 event. He stated that the challenger would be either former featherweight champ Jose Aldo or former lightweight champ Frank Edgar. Very quickly it became clear that McGregor had been lying about that course of action as he pursued a Diaz rematch at UFC 200 before pulling out of the fight and 'retiring.' He then stated that he wasn't retiring and that he wanted to move to boxing to fight retired P4P king of boxing Floyd Mayweather. After tumultuous weeks of that nonsense the rematch with Diaz was announced after all for UFC 202. During the buildup to the Diaz rematch Edgar and Aldo faced off for the interim featherweight title at UFC 200 with Aldo winning a close decision. UFC president Dana White stated firmly that McGregor would be defending his belt in a unification rematch against Aldo win or lose against Diaz. McGregor defeated Diaz via a razor-close majority decision, showing improvement on many levels of his game most notably his cardio. A third fight would surely loom not far on the horizon with both men holding a win over the other and with Diaz holding the far more decisive victory. Making History Predictably Dana White's promise that McGregor would be forced to defend his featherweight title turned out to be a blatant lie. McGregor next signed to fight for the lightweight title against champion Eddie Alvarez at the UFC's first show in the prestigious Madison Square Garden. McGregor dominated Alvarez completely en route to a second round knockout in one of the finest performances of his career to date, making history as the first to hold belts in two UFC weight divisions simultaneously. A few weeks after the Alvarez victory McGregor was officially stripped of his featherweight title that he had never so much as hinted at defending. The undisputed title was officially relinquished back to Jose Aldo. McGregor himself would be out of competition until at least spring 2017, taking time off as his girlfriend Dee Devlin was pregnant. Fights *Joe Duffy vs. Conor McGregor *Conor McGregor vs. Marcus Brimage - The fight was the UFC debut of hyped prospect McGregor. *Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier *Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver *Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes - The fight was for the interim UFC featherweight title. *Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo - The fight was to unify the UFC featherweight title held by Jose Aldo and the ... interim UFC featherweight title held by Conor McGregor. *Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor 1 - Nate Diaz was a late-notice replacement for an injured Rafael Dos Anjos on about ten days notice. Category:Featherweight fighters Category:Irish fighters Category:Prospects Category:UFC interim champions Category:UFC featherweight champions